Shortchanged by
Westbound
records in favor of
the Ohio Players
and
Funkadelic
,
the Counts
were a good band that didn't hang around long enough to sniff gold.
"Rhythm Changes"
dropped as a single while this LP, their first, incubated. The credit read "
the Fabulous Counts
," but by time the album emerged, they were simply
.
"Thinking Single"
was the first 45 from the completed album, but
"What's Up Front,"
a studio monster comprising eight minutes of stoner funk; the staccato-ish
"Rock of Lies"
; and
"What's It All About,"
a lurching beat-
ballad
, were better choices. Style-wise,
exhibited shades of
but were nowhere near as identifiable. Like
the Barkays
, but to a much greater degree,
didn't have a definitive style. But that hardly kept them from jamming their butts off, as they do on this disk. ~ Andrew Hamilton